The 17-year-old who saved her 12 brothers and sisters from the Californian ‘house of horrors‘ took secret photos of her tortured siblings and their living conditions in the years leading up to their rescue by police.
The Turpin daughter, who called authorities on January 14 this year, took the images on a mobile phone, which she kept hidden.
The horrifying photos were shown in court for the first time last week as prosecutors presented evidence during the preliminary hearing against David Turpin and wife Louise Turpin.
Journalists who were present at the hearing reported that many in the room “gasped” upon seeing the pictures, which showed two pale, severely malnourished little girls shackled to bunk beds, reports News.com.au.
In one photo, described in a report published in the El Paso Times, a girl is “tightly chained around her frail torso. Her long dark hair covers the pale skin of her face, her eyes cast down and away.”
“She sits on her knees on a filthy mattress thrown on the floor in front of a pair of bunk beds,” the reporter wrote.
In March, YouTube videos emerged which had been posted by the same teenage girl, under an alias.
In the videos, the girl can be heard singing songs she had seemingly written herself, against the backdrop of her harsh living conditions.
“You blame me for everything, you blame me in every way, you blame me for what they say, what they say,” she sings in one of the clips.
One video shows clothes piled to the floor and dirt on floors; another shows the girl interacting with two Maltese-mix breed dogs.
David and Louise Turpin have been charged with multiple counts of child abuse, torture and false imprisonment. They face life in jail if convicted.
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